Wednesday, 28 January 2009

What would life be with out Mountain Hard Wear? To day my birth day present arrived from the US of A and it was a fleece jump suit to keep me warm on altitude. Back in the days the jump suit to own was a Javlin. It was so good that Joe Simpson failed to die in it dropping the comment "the gear is to bloody good I could not die in it" this was on his Epic decent of Siula Grande in Peru.

Well lets see how this suit pans out but it sure looks promising. Light, slim and fast. The the question is what will happen to the weather? All this snow sucks but who know we might just be in for a good spell to do some hard north face climbing. Only time will tell. For now I try to stay in shape climbing as much Ice as I can but I want more. I want REAL FUCKING ALPINE ROUTES. Ice climbing is a bit like one night stands no real commitment. In Swedish Fegis alpinism...

Monday, 26 January 2009

To day was the first time I tried an out right dry tooling route andit was truly bullshit. To climb on dust rock right by a nice ice cigaris plain stupidity but then have you done that 4 times why not go forsome tool destruction? I have to say its outstanding in an athleticway but quite pointless if you are training for big mixed route on bigalpine faces. The similarity is less than ZERO but sure you feel likea hero toping out.

The snow keep dumping and now its hot on top of that. Looks likeGrindelwald is in having a good spell of wether this week but nopartner for some Eiger action. Its truly sad. Well I will start acount down clock on the UIAA winter next week. Don't feel any panicfriends... Ulei Steck was dead on when he hit the big Face in Chamonixits like any thing in life no show with out a bit of good timing.

For a monday after a bad flue I have to say I'm happy with somme WI 5,M6+ and M7+ but I will not keep burning my days on bolted dry routesafter all I climb rock in the summer.

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Well I will add to the confusion and wright this one in English, in fact I might switch to English. Or not? The snow is dumping in the alps and my dreams are fading away at the same rate as the avalanche scale is increasing. Its just so fucked and I have no sympathy at all for all the ski bums enjoying there life right now. I count snow consolidation days and the fact that the winter is only lasting to about March 20th according to the UIAA rules.

Having a bit of a flue is not helping and this dry tooling is a good of a sport as cricket. I like my axes to much to get the fun but I might also be to old or just to fat. Who gives a shit.

Walking around with Himalaya plans is a great source of inspiration but also a huge amount of head ache. Should I stay or should I go? I guess time will tell. One thing I promised myself a long time ago is never to go if I'm not sure of the folks I will go with. The article to day on www.mounteverest.net about Dodo Kopold remind me of past relations in the Himalaya game, people with who I did not go. I remember why and I know I did the right call back then. However sharing a goal and an ambition might just be all that's needed to get along just fine and make magic happen. But on the other hand when shit hits the fan ambition can and will kill. So staying sober having ambitions is like putting a junkie in a room with drugs for the week end and lock the door and hope he is just fine when its opened.

In the end I think the right thing will happen for a reason. A dream line is just to good no to try. Its why I climb. Its why I love going out in the mountains and get all batted up and come back home.

"On 28 December 2008 Ueli Steck from Switzerland climbed the classic Colton - Macintyre route up the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses in in a mere 2 hours and 21 minutes, setting a new record for the wall and climbing all three great North Faces of the Alps in staggering times: Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses." By planetmountain.com